BRONCS FALL AT MTSU

MURFREESBORO, TN-The University of Texas-Pan American men’s basketball wasn’t able to get off to a good start against Middle Tennessee State in their game against the host Blue Raiders Monday night.

MTSU took advantage, holding the Broncs to 18.5 per cent from the field in the first half, taking a 37-21 halftime lead, and going on to defeat UTPA, 70-52 at the Murphy Center.

The Blue Raiders scored the first 11 points of the game, and jumped out to a 21-7 advantage with 9:02 remaining in the first half. The Broncs used two consecutive free throws apiece by junior forward Andrius Sakalys (Vilnius, Lithuania/M. Dauksos HS/Eastern Oklahoma State) and freshman guard Eric Montalvo (La Joya, TX/La Joya HS) to cut their deficit to nine points, 23-14 with 6:05 to play before halftime.

A three-pointer and subsequent jumper by senior center Marcus Quinn (Midwest City, OK/Choctaw HS/Eastern Oklahoma State) in the second half allowed UTPA to cut their deficit to 12 points at 41-29 with 15:47 to play. Later, consecutive jumpers by Quinn, junior guard James Davis (Oklahoma City, OK/Casady HS/Westark College) and sophomore guard Nick Traylor (Oklahoma City, OK/Putnam City HS/Northwestern Oklahoma State) followed by a jumper and free throw by Quinn allowed the Broncs to run off nine consecutive points and cut their deficit to 11 points, 49-38 with 10:12 remaining.  However, they could come no closer.

UTPA was hurt by the absence of senior guard Mire Chatman (Garland, TX/South Garland HS/Southwestern Christian  JC), who missed the game with an injury.

“Our guys battled hard, but we didn’t shoot the ball as well as we needed to to have a chance to win,” said UTPA Head Coach Bob Hoffman. “We started off slowly, but we played evenly after that. I thought our guys gave a great effort, but we needed to shoot a little better. Marcus had a  great game, and our guys did a great job of finding him, but overall, we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be.”

Quinn led the Broncs with 23 points. Lee Nosse had 25 and William Pippen added 15 for MTSU.

UTPA fell to 17-8 with the defeat, while the Blue Raiders improved to 12-11. The Broncs will return to action when they visit Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m.

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